‘Seen’ through Records: Parents’ Access to Children’s Social Care Records in an Age of Increasing Datafication

• Published in: The British journal of social work 2024-01, Vol.54 (1), p.228-245
• Main Authors: Gorin, Sarah, Edwards, Rosalind, Gillies, Val, Vannier Ducasse, Hélène
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Access; Accountability; Allegations; Archives & records; Bureaucracy; Care records; Child welfare; Children; Data integrity; Decision making; False allegations; Families & family life; Parents & parenting; Power structure; Professionals; Public services; Regulation; Reparations; Social services; Social work
• ISSN: 0045-3102; 1468-263X
• DOI: 10.1093/bjsw/bcad192

General Data Protection Regulations state that parents may submit a Subject Access Request (SAR) to see personal records held about them. In this article, we draw on interviews with parents who have made an SAR in order to view their children’s social care records. Their experiences reveal the significant barriers of time, energy and bureaucracy that they faced in accessing their children’s records. The parents felt that they were ‘seen’ through their records, reported inaccuracies in information about them and relayed the devastating impact that false allegations of maltreatment continued to have in their lives. Datafication becomes an integral part of the unequal power dynamic between parents and professionals, further shifting the balance towards professionals, damaging fragile trust and engagement. Crucially, there are ethical questions raised for the social work profession about the accessibility and accountability of local authority processes when parents seek justice and reparation for harm. Given the importance of records in decision making about intervention in families lives and increasing datafication of public services working with families through electronic systems including predictive analytics, our indicative findings point to the need for further investigation. When families come into contact with services such as health, education and social work, electronic records are created about them that can be shared and linked together across agencies and are used to make crucial decisions about their lives. Under UK law, individuals can ask to see information that is held about them, but interviews with mothers who had requested to see their children’s social care records following traumatic experiences with children’s social care show how difficult this process can be. The mothers we spoke to as part of our research, discussed barriers like the time and energy required to access records, inaccurate information being on records and the significant impact this had on the lives of their families. Their experiences show how growing reliance on and sharing of electronic information about families means that professionals hold increased power over parents. This led to a lack of trust, less engagement with services and as a result, families may be more disadvantaged. These findings suggest a need for further investigation of data accuracy and processes for families wanting to access their records and raise important questions for the social work profes